While some of the darker/more charged versions of that whole post-rock/metal thing used to excite me, the bulk that have come my way lately have diminished my interest and left me with an "SSDD" feeling... same shit, different dudes.

Unfortunately The Sullen Route fell into that pattern with Apocalyclinic.

The Volgograd quartet play some form of post-ish rock/metal not too dissimilar from other artists I've reviewed this year. Crunched, simplistic riffs bent on creating a mood, melodic leads over at times, shouted vocals. Occasionally the cut back to mellow moments, occasionally the ramp up in intensity.

A nice albom when you want to do something and not concentrate on listening. It is not aggressive, it gives good tunes and maintains the same mood. It suits well when you want to do math or read philosophy or ... fill in the blanks yourself. It is not so monotonous as some bands, so it keeps the brain working ( so it does not suit to dull activities). At the same time it is not so creative to keep you listening actively. And that can be a problem. This is not a market that is wide and waits to be filled. Most people either listen actively and then the long songs start to dull the mind. Or they put the music on as a background noise - and it is a bit too creative to suit there. Well, I took Spengler and The Sullen Route - and they suited together perfectly, but in other stuations I would probably have dismissed this albom as SSDD.